Greenville, Sinoe County – Commander Fasu Sheriff, head of the Rivercess Police Department has seen better days.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Not a day goes by when he and his crew don’t get emergency calls about a long line of vehicles stuck in the mud and Wednesday was no different.
Approaching the Yarpah Town community, a dozen cars, mostly heavy-duty trucks, jeeps and pickups are held in their tracks – many had been stuck from the night before.
Ahead of them is a massive hole surrounded by several pounds of mud.
The front end of a heavy Ford truck had sunk in the night before; a somewhat brave attempt by the driver who probably thought the size of his truck was enough to get him over the hurdle.
Rivercess County, with a population of over 72,000 has at least 36,500 registered voters in this year’s presidential and legislative elections.
The number could have been more but some residents like Seaklon Deljay isn’t one of the lucky ones.
“I won’t be voting this year,” he says.
“Look around you,” he tells a journalist, pointing to the trail of vehicles kept in check by a deep hole on this major route from Grand Bassa to River Cess Counties.
“The roads are just too bad. Many of us could not register to vote because of the bad roads,” he says.
“And if it stays like this, many will not turn out on voting day.”
Bad roads have been a challenge since the end of the civil war but extreme poverty, especially in rural areas remains high.
This cycle of poverty, according to experts, will continue if the country does not address issues with effective road network to connect its people and resources.
The country’s infrastructure network represents the most visible symptom of the former conflict, stifling access to markets outside the capital.
These broken roads decrease the food supply and exacerbate hunger and malnutrition in rural Liberia.
But there have been some efforts to mitigate the problem.
For example, in July 2013, President Sirleaf dedicated an 80.8km stretch of road from Cotton Tree to Buchanan City in Grand Bassa County reduced travel from the capital to Buchanan from five hours to roughly two hours.
The newly paved asphalt road from Gbarnga, Bong County to Ganta in Nimba County has also made the two cities major destinations for events out of the capital.
While many candidates are easily reaching other parts of the country like Bassa, Bong and Nimba to make their pitches to voters and constituencies, many in the Southeast aren’t so lucky.
In March this year, President Sirleaf broke grounds for phase II of the Fish Town –Harper road project.
The project which is now under the auspices of the Mano River Union Road Development and Transport Facilitation Programme (MRU/RDTFP) has five key components and will last for 36 months plus a one- year defect liability period.
The five components include road development and mitigation of negative environmental impacts, related development and women’s empowerment, transportation facilitation, institutional support and programme management.
With phase I already on-going between Harper City and Karloken and at 37 percent completion level, phase II commences at Karloken and ends at Fish Town in River Gee County.
Physical road development work will entails the asphalt concrete pavement of 80 kilometers of dirt muddy road from Karloken in Maryland to Fish Town in River Gee counties respectively.
Other action-oriented activities will include the construction and equipment of two joint border post (JBPs), weighing and toll stations and health control posts between Cote d’ Ivoire and Liberia on the one hand, and Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire on the other.
In addition, the project will also cover the construction of a modern bridge over the Cavalla River which spans the Liberian-Ivorian border on the Tabou-Harper highway.
The rainy season has slowed down work on the Fish Town to Harper Road.
The government recently broke grounds for the Fish Town in Rivergee County to Zwedru in Grand Gedeh.
The project was initiated when President Sirleaf visited the region in April this year.
The 130 kilometer road will connect Rivergee and Sinoe Counties at an estimated cost of US$1.3 million.
The project is expected to last 18 months.
So, for many of the more than 20 candidates seeking votes, southeast Liberia for the most part, is a near no-go zone.
It is perhaps due to this major challenge that some of the major candidates are already making alternative plans to reach these hard-to-reach areas by air.
Senator George Weah of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change last week unveiled a mini-jet, aides say will be taking him around challenging routes over the course of the campaign season.
Other candidates like Alexander Cummings of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) and Charles Brumskine (Liberty Party) are also said to be expecting air travel resources for the grueling stretch of the campaign season.
On Wednesday however, Mr. Cummings received a doze of reality of what he will have to deal with if he is successful in his bid for the presidency.
Bad roads and rains forced him to postpone a campaign stop in Greenville City.
In the second round of the 2005 presidential race, President Johnson-Sirleaf brought in a helicopter which gave her the edge against her main rival, Weah.
In the 1997 elections, Charles Taylor brought in helicopters in a bid to have the edge over his rivals.
The rugged road conditions have prompted many to raise concerns about the disadvantages of having elections during the rainy season.
Liberia seems to be the only country in the region holding its elections during the rains. Election Day is left at the mercy of the weather.
Ghana holds her elections in December when the rains are over, Nigeria’s in February, Sierra Leone holds her in November, just to list a few.
Mr. Henry Flomo, Communications Director at the National Elections Commission (NEC) said the Commission is greatly concerned about the possibly impeding of electoral activities by the rains.
However, he said the NEC cannot do much about it because the elections date is constitutional.
“We’re not happy about the rains, especially during this campaign time.”
“It may impact our activities but the law is the law and there’s nothing we can do about it,” he told FrontPageAfrica.
Mr. Flomo recalled an attempt in 2011 to shift the election date through a referendum.
The proposition, however, could not meet the 50 plus one required Yes votes to effect the amendment.
With only three months allotted for the campaign season, many expect a lot of rainy days to deny candidates from reaching out to their constituents.
For now, makeshift rescuers like Peter Momoh are making a living helping stranded motorists get out of the bad roads.
“We feel bad for the people but at least we making a living out of the misfortune of the bad roads, “Momoh says, with a smirk on his face.
Along the roads to Rivercess, Greenville and even Barclayville, only a handful of local candidates’ fliers could be seen on mud houses but none of the presidential candidates of 2017.
What remains noticeable for motorists on this route are 2011 campaign banners of Ellen & Joe, a fading reminder of the past twelve years, a chilling observation illustrating the massive impact bad roads and non-stop rains are having on the political campaign season, just four days in play.